Pocket of Resistance is a new band from Scottish singer-songwriter Nigel Parry, who has lived in the Twin Cities for a decade. P.o.R. have shared the stage with the likes of Boots Riley and the Coup, Eyedea, Ill Chemistry, the New Congress, Los Nativos, and Junkyard Empire.

Pocket of Resistance are Nigel Parry (vocals and guitar), Greg Lyon (fretless bass guitar), Michael Metheny (mandolin & bodhrán) and Peter Thomas (tabla), musicians who have played together on and off for over a decade.

Based in the United States, Nigel released his debut "This Side Of Paradise" album in February 2001, "...a disc whose recommendation is its deftly managed intensity" -- New Internationalist magazine, August 2001

Born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1968, Nigel was brought up in Singapore. In his early years, Nigel had the opportunity to travel to Africa, India, and much of the Far East. From an early age, he was interested in writing and music, and throughout his school and university years, he began songwriting and performing live.

Haunting tunes, multi-layered lyrics, and boiling emotion are just part of this Scottish singer-songwriter's presentation. Although it's not unusual for singer-songwriters to travel around the world, Nigel Parry has lived in some pretty strange and scattered parts of the world. Nigel lived from 1994 to 1998 in the Palestinian West Bank, and these places squeezed out some intense and beautiful music.

After finishing a BA (Hons) in English and Psychology in London, Nigel accompanied a delegation of educators and trades unionists in August 1989 on a Friends of Birzeit University/World University Service study tour to the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza Strip. This period was in the middle of the first Palestinian Intifada, and this first trip signaled the beginning of an 20-year-long involvement with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Middle East.

Nigel Parry is an activist known for his new media/Internet work on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Iraq war, and was awarded the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee's Voices of Peace award in 2003. The award was presented to the Electronic Intifada and Electronic Iraq websites he co founded "in recognition of its commitment to bringing the concerns, voices, and experiences of the Iraqi and Palestinian peoples to audiences the world over via the Internet."

His 2001 album, This Side Of Paradise, is significant in that much of the material was written in the Palestinian West Bank, and the lyrical content therefore deals with the conflict. Unlike the movement to end Apartheid in South Africa, which saw many chart-topping, major label artists penning songs that addressed the obvious inequalities between black and white South Africans--including U2, Tracy Chapman, Peter Gabriel, Little Stevens, and Eddy Grant to name a few--the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a lyrical focus has remained mostly untouched by the singer-songwriter community.

"Deeply moving songs... With quiet intensity, Parry gives voice to this 'invisible people' living under siege." -- Lydia Howell, KFAI Radio, 90.3/106.7FM, Twin Cities, MN.

Contact/bookings welcomed via nigel [at] nigelparry.net/646-812-0897.

pocketofresistance.net.

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